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Dove
Mr. Lapham is Johnny’s elderly master. He’s extremely religious (in addition to training his apprentices to work silver, he also takes a keen interest in their religious education) and an avowed Tory. In his old age, he relies on Johnny to take notes on customers’ orders and basically run the shop. Meanwhile, he spends much of his time sleeping or reading his Bible. Though he was once a fine silversmith, Mr. Lapham now mostly works on simple projects that keep money flowing through the shop without being too technically challenging. So, it’s shocking for Johnny when John Hancock visits the shop with a cream pitcher that Mr. Lapham made years ago, asking for Mr. Lapham to recreate the matching sugar basin. Mr. Lapham is able to work on the intricate basin, shocking Johnny. But Johnny is even more shocked and angry when Mr. Lapham, angry with Johnny for being prideful and cruel to Dove, refuses to let Johnny work on the basin, meaning it won’t be done in time. Johnny burns his hand when he defies Mr. Lapham and works on Sunday to try to complete the basin. Mr. Lapham dies about a year after Johnny burns his hand and leaves the Lapham house.
Mr. Lapham Quotes in Johnny Tremain
The Johnny Tremain quotes below are all either spoken by Mr. Lapham or refer to Mr. Lapham. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 1
Quotes
Fetching water, sweeping, helping in the kitchen, tending the annealing furnace in the shop were the unskilled work the boys did. Already Johnny was so useful at the bench he could never be spared for such labor. It was over a year since he had carried charcoal or a bucket of water, touched a broom or helped Mrs. Lapham brew ale. His ability made him semi-sacred. He knew his power and reveled in it. He could have easily made friends with stupid Dove, for Dove was lonely and admired Johnny as well as envied him. Johnny preferred to bully him.
Related Characters:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
He sat at his own bench, before him the innumerable tools of his trade. The tools fitted into his strong, thin hands: his hands fitted the tools. Mr. Lapham was always telling him to give God thanks who had seen fit to make him so good an artisan—not to take it out in lording it over the other boys. That was one of the things Johnny ‘did not let bother him much.’
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Mr. Lapham Quotes in Johnny Tremain
The Johnny Tremain quotes below are all either spoken by Mr. Lapham or refer to Mr. Lapham. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 1
Quotes
Fetching water, sweeping, helping in the kitchen, tending the annealing furnace in the shop were the unskilled work the boys did. Already Johnny was so useful at the bench he could never be spared for such labor. It was over a year since he had carried charcoal or a bucket of water, touched a broom or helped Mrs. Lapham brew ale. His ability made him semi-sacred. He knew his power and reveled in it. He could have easily made friends with stupid Dove, for Dove was lonely and admired Johnny as well as envied him. Johnny preferred to bully him.
Related Characters:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
He sat at his own bench, before him the innumerable tools of his trade. The tools fitted into his strong, thin hands: his hands fitted the tools. Mr. Lapham was always telling him to give God thanks who had seen fit to make him so good an artisan—not to take it out in lording it over the other boys. That was one of the things Johnny ‘did not let bother him much.’
